Unexpected Roads
by Nemrut
Summary: A One Piece/Naruto crossover. The escalation of the conflict between Akatsuki and Konoha causes several shinobi to find themselves in another world, one that would open up new roads for every person involved.
1. Kakashi

This story is an AU and a crossover at the same time. Several things in the storyline happened differently, which of these things changed will be stated in this chapter. Thanks at Kyuri and Hadz as both fixed as many mistakes as they could and made this first chapter that much better.

Disclaimer: The story you are about to read, the characters and places you are about to see all belong to Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto. If you do see something you do not recognize, there might be the slight possibility that it may have been my idea. Wouldn't bet on it though.

Have fun and enjoy.

* * *

_All I ask for is a leaf. In return, I will give you a tree._

* * *

Sitting in front of the memorial, Kakashi was busy carving the names of the fallen shinobi they had lost in the past few weeks. He didn't want to do it, but he knew he owed it to all his comrades. After the abduction and death of the Kazekage Gaara, the first name he carved in was Haruno Sakura, his former student. It was especially painfully for him to write that name. He had trained that girl; she was one of his first students.

_I knew it had been a bad idea to put me in charge__ of a Genin team,_ Kakashi thought sadly. He was the first one to admit that he didn't do a good job with his team but he couldn't help but feel that this should have been avoidable, that he and Tsunade (mostly Tsunade) had trained her better than this.

One might think the student of the famous copy ninja and the legendary Slug Sannin would be a monster on the battlefield...

Yet Sasori of the Red Sands had killed Sakura and Chiyo in the cave where they had cornered the Akatsuki duo. While he had chased after Naruto, who in turn was chasing after Deidara, Sasori had obviously defeated and killed the two kunoichi and before the fight between Deidara and them could reach any conclusion; Sasori had caught up to them and then they had been surrounded by the two S-Class nin. A mirthless smile nearly found the way on his face at the thought that Sakura had obviously destroyed Sasori's puppet he had been hiding it. Sakura had come far from the little girl who only looked at Sasuke, to a capable yet inexperienced kunoichi. Like most shinobi she died too early, too soon before she could reach her full potential.

Fortunately Team Gai arrived at the scene, forcing Sasori and Deidara to escape, as both were exhausted. They had spend three days extracting a Tailed Beast and fought hard battles right after and before, like Deidara's fight with Gaara and the chase while Sasori fought against both of the kunoichi.

They left Kakashi poisoned, courtesy of one of Sasori's numerous weapons and it was only because of Sakura's last remaining antidote that Kakashi could escape sure death. Naruto was mostly uninjured or to put it better, didn't receive an injury that wouldn't heal overnight but Gaara's and Sakura's death hurt Naruto more than any poison or injury could.

_You once thought that loneliness is the worst pain in the world Naruto, do you still think that?  
_

It hurt even more that, as it turned out, Sasori had taken Sakura's corpse with him. From what Kakashi had understood from the battlefield where they had found Chiyo's body and by questioning Chiyo's brother, he had learned that Sasori would build a puppet from Sakura's body, a fear that became validated during the invasion. The thought of the body of his student being exploited and used that way nearly made vomit.

Then Kakashi had attempted to help Naruto learn a new technique, a technique which would surpass the Yondaime, his teacher, one of the best shinobi in history. A technique that even in his most basic form was devastating and with the next step would surely be an incredible attack. The Yondaime himself hadn't found the time to complete it but had left Kakashi with enough ideas, that Kakashi had attempted to pass it down to Naruto, as the last part of his father's legacy but in the end the training had been futile.

Naruto's state of mind just didn't let him learn to combine elemental recomposition and spatial recomposition. It failed, since Naruto simply couldn't hold back his frustration, rage and sadness and thus he lost control of the Kyuubi too many times during the shadow clone training session to progress. The Kyuubi chakra was something Naruto accessed in emotional distress and Naruto had never been in a worse emotional condition than at those moments.

To complete, or advance, an already difficult technique like the Rasengan required concentration, calmness and willpower, all of which Naruto didn't have at that point. The amount of Shadow Clones who couldn't focus and control their chakra and drew on the Kyuubi were too much to handle for Kakashi and Yamato. So what should have been a training session for Naruto, turned to be a workout for the two teachers. Keeping an eye out for hundreds of clones at the same time and dispose of them once they turned dangerous is not an easy feat, especially if one keeps doing it for hours.

During that time, Kakashi carved in the second name, Sarutobi Asuma, the son of one of the strongest shinobi in existence. Kakashi offered himself as a team captain for the former Team Ten as they went out to avenge their sensei.

Asuma's death was a real tragedy; now the only living link to the third Hokage was Konohamaru who was even less talented than his uncle, and the difference in skill between the third and Asuma was exactly like the difference between Kakashi and a fresh Genin. Kakashi knew how Asuma had felt; despite being an excellent ninja himself, he also could never truly live up to the legendary level of his father who was even said to surpass the Sannin and he knew anyone of those could defeat him.

Still, as things were Team Yamato couldn't manage to provide backup for Tsunade's deadline and in the end, another team was called.

It didn't do any good. They were beaten; although they had taken out three of Kakuzu's hearts and Shikamaru actually managed to defeat Hidan, the loss of the backup team, Chouji's critical injury and Ino's sacrifice didn't leave them any choice but to retreat.

He had clearly misjudged the Yamanaka girl, he often saw her as a less talented yet a prettier version of Sakura but that fight had corrected his view of her as she displayed an amazing fighting spirit.

Without any concern for her health she actually managed to possess Kakuzu, swallow a self made poison and let Kakashi's third Raikiri pierce his third heart; yet it was in vain. Although it had saved Chouji, the Akimichi was killed by Kakuzu only three minutes later as he threw himself in front of Kakuzu's gigantic fire attack which would have killed Ino, who was weakened by her own poison.

It had pained Kakashi to see that even this selfless gesture from the Akimichi was in vain as the black tendrils of Kakuzu had pierced Ino only seconds later.

Kakashi, Shikamaru and one other chunin were the only ones who were able to escape Kakuzu, who didn't follow them, fearing another ambush while being low on chakra and hearts.

Kakashi had watched how Shikamaru had carved Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino into the monument, right before he added the members of the Nijuu Shotai that had died during the fight, all of them comrades and at one point, teammates.

He had sent his nin-dogs - alongside with a few ANBU - to the place where the one Shikamaru had defeated lay buried but they had found the hole empty. Only the numerous bloodstains hinted that there had been once the destroyed body of an incredibly dangerous ninja.

Seeing that this guy actually was immortal, Kakashi had little doubt that he was alive.

Shikamaru had told him that he was still talking although his head was separated and his body blown up, so that Kakuzu guy had probably stitched him back together.

_Akatsuki is made up from too many strong abominations, _thought the Copy Ninja resentfully.

Then they had received the note that Akatsuki had captured the eight tailed beast, it hinted towards the fact that it was the work of the very two shinobi they had let escape.

The news Jiraya brought after this was grave; Sasuke Uchiha had killed Orochimaru, formed his own platoon and gone after Itachi while the Akatsuki had captured another Jinchuriki, which made Naruto their last and greatest target.

The news of Jiraya's death that Fukasaku, one of the two great Sage Toads, brought alongside the final message of Jiraya had been devastating. Not only had they lost their strongest shinobi, but his death came hard to the very two people they needed to depend on the most; Tsunade, who had already lost her apprentice Sakura now lost the last link to her past. Sandaime was dead, Dan and Nawaki were dead, Orochimaru had betrayed them and was dead too, Jiraya had died and Naruto was a wreck, exactly like she had been.

Seeing all her fears for which she once left Konoha come true and going through losing her most precious persons again changed Tsunade. Shizune and Naruto were probably the reasons she didn't go on a rampage.

Naruto, who had already lost Sakura, many friends and now his mentor and teacher had taken the news surprisingly well and had immediately accepted the Sage training Fukasaku proposed.

Kakashi was the last person on earth to blame him for wanting to escape Konoha in his situation. Naruto, who had made it his very own dogma to not let any harm come to his precious persons, had lost a lot of them without being able to do anything to prevent it. He blamed himself for Sakura's death since he chased after Deidara. He blamed himself for Gaara's death, for not being fast enough to get there in the first place. He blamed himself for Ino's and Chouji's death for not being able to complete the most difficult training Kakashi had ever seen. He blamed himself for Sasuke's descend into darkness for not speaking the right words to reach Sasuke . And he felt guilty for not fulfilling Jiraya's ideals.

Kakashi knew how blaming yourself felt; he felt exactly the same when his friends and loved ones had died one after another, leaving him, the least deserving alive. He also knew how that particular mindset influenced one's training; it either drove you to greatness, or it broke you. It had broken Kakashi.

If it hadn't been for Mikoto Uchiha's endless patience and kindness, Kakashi doubted he would have been able to control the Sharingan half as well as he does now.

_How is __it that a wonderful woman like her dies and I survive? Naruto, you feel the same way, don't you?_

He also doubted that the Toads had the same patience and understanding for Naruto that Mikoto Uchiha had for him.

So when Naruto returned, he was not surprised to see that his pupil had not mastered Sage Mode.

Akatsuki didn't wait long after the death of Jiraya by the hands of Pain in Amegakure, the attack totally caught them off guard; before they finished their preparations Konoha was invaded by a total of eight Akatsuki members: Deidara, Konan, Sasori, Pain, Hidan, Kakuzu, Kisame and Itachi and apparently they had used the Uchiha's knowledge as a former Konoha ANBU to infiltrate the village without getting noticed by the detection barrier.

That battle was the longest, hardest and most hopeless battle Kakashi had ever fought. As after Jiraya's death, Kakashi was the second strongest shinobi of Konoha, almost on par with Tsunade. Unfortunately, every one of the Akatsuki was either stronger or on the same level as he was. That made the situation catastrophic since it normally takes three to four good shinobi working perfectly in team to bring down one S-class ninja. Having eight of them attack in surprise while working together and Konoha couldn't organize a sufficient defense.

Deidara nearly blew up the whole village and the only reason he didn't use even stronger bombs was, so Kakashi thought, not to kill Naruto. Kakuzu wasn't that far away in dealing damage, using the strongest elemental combination attacks he had seen to simply annihilate Konoha's best troops. Konan, using exploding paper to such amounts that Kakashi wouldn't have thought existed, destroyed selected targets and whatever was left with pinpoint precision.

Hidan, Sasori and Kisame rampaged through the city overwhelming them with immortality, a sheer insane number of lethal and poisonous puppets, brute strength combined with a chakra draining sword, the perhaps greatest repertoire of water jutsus since the Nidaime and maybe the chakra reserves which nearly rivaled Naruto's.

It didn't help that one of Sasori's puppets was Sakura and Naruto's roar of anguish that he let out as he had seen her would haunt him forever in his nightmares.

To Kakashi's greatest horrir, they weren't even the main problem, Pain, the leader of Akatsuki was! As Fukasaku described, there were six bodies, each of them capable of doing incredible feats and working together they formed an unstoppable force.

He didn't even know what Itachi had been up to but his guess would be that he had "visited" the old Uchiha compounds again, if the flames engulfing that place were any indication.

_I should have tried harder to kill him when I saw him in Konoha back then, _he told himself, perhaps it could have prevented the surprise attack.

Maybe they could have won, no Kakashi was sure they even then they could have fought them off, if it hadn't been for Danzo's betrayal. Danzo had kept his forces underground, in hopes that Tsunade and most of her supporters would die, leaving him in charge of Konoha without serious opposition once he and his Root shinobi fought the enemy off. He had grossly miscalculated; the main force of Konoha had been broken, seeing that they missed many shinobi who, as it turned out, had been Root agents.

Kakashi had never suspected that so many of his comrades had been brainwashed by Danzo and the Root alone couldn't deal with the Akatsuki. While there were more Root agents than suspected, they were still not numerous enough to successfully fight the Akatsuki. Kakashi suspected that many Root died as the countless explosions caused break-ins in the underground tunnels where the Root Agents were waiting for their opportunity.

Danzo himself had been killed by Itachi; Kakashi had found his mutilated corpse with the Uchiha fan crudely carved into his stomach with a kunai. The sight of a dozen Sharingan eyes in Danzo's arm and one where his right eye had been hidden under bandages didn't even startle Kakashi, much less since all of them seemed to be slashed.

After Danzo's treachery and manic thirst for power, Danzo should be glad that Itachi killed him; Kakashi would have made him suffer so much more pain before he had allowed him to die. And if the trees and branches sticking out of the ground irregularly were any indication, it didn't seemed that stealing Sharingan eyes wasn't the only bit of grave-robbing Danzo had been up to.

_Although, the way his face looks makes me wonder just how much he really suffered at the hand of Itachi. The Tsukiyomi leaves no visible scars__ and Itachi had plenty of reasons to hate the man who stole his family's eyes. Shows that even kinslayers don't want anyone else to hurt their family._

After all of of this, Konoha was now mostly in ruins and ashes. Naruto was captured; most of the ninja, including Tsunade, Gai, all of the ANBU, the former Roots, nearly all jounin and most of the civilians who actually made it to the Hokage monument, which had been blown up by Deidara, were dead. The ones left were a couple of chunin, a dozen genin and maybe three Jounin.

The long battle had ultimately led to Konoha's destruction. Pain's, Kakuzu's, Konan's and Deidara's techniques had done most of the collateral damage and the fighting ended with the final capture of Naruto, who despite arriving during the heat of the battle with Sage Mode activated, could not turn the tide of the battle.

Konoha had lost its Hokage, more than two thirds of its Shinobi-Force, the surviving third was greatly injured or was simply away for missions, three fourths of their buildings and the vessel of the nine tailed fox.

That was literally the end of the Hidden Village in the Leaves; there was no way it could rebuild itself fast enough without the other villages noticing its extremely weakened state and not a single one of them would dream of letting this chance slip. Hidden Stone and Hidden Cloud would exploit this where they could and take as much from the Country of Fire's territory as they were able to.

Kakashi knew this, the surviving shinobi knew this, heck even the remaining civilians realized this.

"We can't stay here anymore."

Kakashi didn't need to turn his head to know that most of the survivors nodded. "We will divide our remaining forces in three; one part will go with the civilians and lead them to the main capital, two will stay here to wait for all the teams who were out for missions and the others will follow me…"_ to death,_

His gaze wandered over the battered figures, every single one of them dirty, wounded and exhausted. Shikamaru, who like Kakashi didn't wanted to survive this particular event yet did tightened the self applied bandage and nodded.

"Put me on your team Kakashi." The copy ninja ignored the rudeness, even though it was well within his rights to scold him for that, but Konoha was gone, there was no need to separate between Chunin and Jonin any more.

"I'll tag along too." croaked a voice, "Don't think I'll be all that useful with my arm like this but every second they're wailing on me is a second you can use to get a shot at these bastards."

Under normal circumstances, Kakashi would have punished this kind of self-destructive behavior but when it comes to the Akatsuki, that idea wasn't that bad, a second more could make a huge difference for him to strike with his Chidori. In fact, this was the reason he was taking anyone with him in the first place. _The more they have to kill, the more time we have,_

"Just know what you are getting into Kiba." No san, no kun, neither of the survivors cared about formalities at this point.

Kakashi doubted Kiba knew what his real plan was; Shikamaru might have figured it out and even with him he wasn't sure. Genius he might be, it also belonged an especially ruthless way of thinking to come to the same conclusion Kakashi had.

_Forgive me, sensei._

He turned his attention again to the memorial stone and carved in the last names. It wasn't enough, he needed more volunteers but he couldn't bring himself to order people to come with him, it was a hundred percent suicide mission after all. It was more likely to survive a dive into lava than coming out alive from the Akatsuki lair, where ten S-Class missing-nin were proceeding to extract the nine-tailed beast.

He knew they needed three days to extract one and it might even take longer with the Kyuubi. The attack was yesterday so if they arrived this evening or tomorrow morning, that would still leave four days.

Four days to find the hideout of the most secretive organization known to mankind.

"Izumo, you organize the rest, me, Kiba and Shikamaru are going to leave right now, otherwise we'll lose their trail." ordered Kakashi.

"I believe I could be helpful." interrupted a voice.

"I don't think so Lee."

"I will follow you, regardless of what you say Kakashi-sensei."

"Don't call me that," sighed Kakashi. "what I'm going to do is nothing a real teacher would ever consider."

"It would be to your advantage to take me along too." said a calm voice, although Kakashi didn't overhear the pain, Shino's injuries must be more severe than he thought.

"Why? It is because I have planted a female bug on Naruto, with it, a recovery mission is possible."

That was the best news he had heard in the last few weeks and Kakashi nodded; as much of a liability Shino would be during the fight, with that broken body and the loss of nearly his whole destruction bug colony, it would make up by leading them directly to the hideout.

"Ta..take me too."

Kakashi looked tiredly at the speaker, knowing very well, that she, just like Lee would follow him, no matter what his response would be. In all honestly he didn't want her to come, not only was she one of the less suited for the task he had in mind, but also because she wouldn't be of much use in the upcoming battle; improved Hinata had, Akatsuki level she was not.

Even less if she had suffered third degree burns on a lot of places of her once beautiful body. Most importantly he didn't want her to come because he KNEW why she wanted to come.

But again, he just nodded, finishing carving the last name, Maito Gai, which by all means should have been done by Lee, but Kakashi did it as Lee couldn't effectively use it hands at this point.

Gai, maybe the only one apart from Tenzo whom he could have referred to as a friend, had died five minutes after opening the eight gate, successfully keeping all six of Pein's bodies at bay, even managing to "kill" four but Pein did have the annoying ability to "revive" the bodies. Seeing as it rescued two of his three students Kakashi could only applaud the deceased jounin for having the courage to throw his life away to stall a superior enemy to let your pupils escape.

Gai, in many ways, was a greater man than he could ever be. Now Kakashi had to do the same, only he had to save a world from Akatsuki.

_It is your win Gai,_

Standing up, he signaled for those who wanted to come to follow him. He wasn't surprised that Neji Hyuuga joined theirs ranks without saying a word. Kakashi didn't know if he came to avenge the death of his sensei and teammate, or to protect his last teammate and cousin, or to save Naruto or simply to die, maybe it was a combination of all of them. Kakashi didn't care: even injured to that degree, Neji would still be useful in battle. That boy was a genius more talented than Sasuke and by far the most powerful Hyuuga he had seen. In a few years, Kakashi was sure, he would have been at Akatsuki level. Unfortunately, he most certainly won't have those years.

_Another talented kid dying young, seems to be the fate of most prodigies; either die young or live and turn into a monster._

"Good luck," he told Izumo, "the Capital City should be safe for a while. They may not have the troops that Konoha did but it will provide safety for a little bit." That was a lie, if Akatsuki or even another major shinobi force wanted to attack, the ninja stationed at the capital would not save anyone but the capital and would probably not fight if it came down to it. Yet it was a lie Izumo knew too, and he played along with it.

That didn't mean he had no problems with Kakashi right now. Why go on a mission you can't succeed Izumo obviously wanted to ask. No, demand from him. Everything in his posture, his face said that he thought this to be insane, that Kakashi was going into his death, taking six young kids with him. The grip on his crutches tightened.

_He won't say anything,_ assured Kakashi himself, _he is not stupid enough to start an argument like this right now, in this situation,_

Kakashi knew that his profile as the infamous copy ninja was well known. Officially having stolen over one thousand techniques and maybe having the most completed missions in Konoha history, people expected great and impossible things from him and a certain level of responsibility. They expected him to have a better idea, a safer one. One with an actual chance of success.

_An undeserved reputation, _Kakshi thought, _an unfounded one._

He had been a student of the fourth Hokage, close advisor and personal guard to the third Hokage and some people even rumored he had been the second youngest ANBU captain, after Uchiha Itachi. Izumo had served under him at times, so he knew that this behavior was not normal and that he knew he should say something to make him reconsider.

But he didn't, he knew that not one of the shinobi who were going with Kakashi would hear what he would say, that it only would cause the moral going down more than it already was. If it was possible that is, after losing their home, their village, the one thing they had sworn to protect, no matter what…

To think it was done by eight people, ending the greatest of the five great shinobi nations like that. What three wars couldn't, two platoons managed it, without any losses on that.

And now five exhausted and injured chunin and two exhausted and injured jounin were about to hunt after those eight monsters.

He knew he would never see any of them again. He knew that with them, the last prominent clans of Konoha would die out.

_It would be my fault,_

Yet all he could do was to mechanically nod as he forcefully chocked out "Yeah, you too."

_Just one more thing to do,_

He fumbled a scroll out of one of the many pockets of his vest and opened it. The blood needed for it was easy to provide since he wasn't lacking open wounds and within the small cloud of smoke, stood Fukasaku, leaning on his staff.

"I take it they have him." croaked the old toad sourly.

"Unfortunately." he paused for a second, "Can you…?" but Kakashi was interrupted before he could finish his question.

"Already tried that, boy." The elder frog shook its head, "Have been trying that for the last hour, after we were sent back by one of Pain's bodies. They must have covered him with seals that prevent the reverse summoning." it paused for a few seconds. "They knew he could summon us and obviously they have people among them who are quite well-versed in summoning."

"I was afraid of that." admitted Kakashi, ignoring the looks everyone around him had. "My dogs can't pick up their scent either. We have no idea where they went but we have an Aburame with us who tagged Naruto with a bug, we may be able to follow them that way."

Fukasaku nodded approvingly to Shino. "Aburame were always dependable."

Kakashi stood up, his eye meeting the frog elders steadily. "We'll head out then." Kakashi gave the toad an opportunity to say something which it didn't take. Old summons were rarely that cooperative with people who did not sign their contracts. It showed how deep the bond between Jiraya and the toads was, for it still helped them so much.

"Please don't stop trying to summon Naruto, maybe we will get lucky."

"We didn't stop, my wife is continuing the efforts as we speak." The toads gaze went over the group of shinobi Kakashi had assembled to take with him.

"Please save Naruto-chan" it croaked sadly, apparently it didn't notice Kakashi not answering when it disappeared back to its home.

Neither did his team.

* * *

The Akatsuki had managed to get back in a matter of thirteen hours, for the emergency team of Konoha it took three days. You can't maintain maximum speed in a near half dead condition.

They had to stop over five times already to close the most urgent reopened wounds.

"It is about time I explain our real mission…" started Kakashi slowly at their last break before arriving.

"What do you mean real mission?" asked Kiba confused. For him it was a pretty clear mission. Get in there, try to rescue Naruto and mess up the sealing and die while trying, nothing too confusing, it was actually his kind of mission. He wouldn't mind surviving but at this point, with his family dead he didn't think it would matter.

"We're not here to save Naruto; we're not going to try to save Naruto." The reactions of his team were quite expected. Shino didn't have a visible reaction, Shikamaru cursed silently while Neji frowned, the shock on Lee's face was heartbreaking, Kiba snarled angrily and would have yelled in a safer location, Akamaru growled dangerously and Hinata, due to a mixture of shock, rage and sense of betrayal activated unconsciously her Byakugan to glare at Kakashi in such a way that her deceased father might have been moved to tears.

"Wh...what are you saying?" demanded Hinata. "How can you think like that, we have to try, maybe we…"

"No!" Kakashi interrupted her. "It is impossible to save Naruto, it's impossible to go there, take Naruto and escape. I am not going to let you die while trying doing something meaningless. At best, we can interrupt the ritual for three days if we move according to your idea."

"Then why did we come here?" snarled Kiba, looking more feral than usual. "Tell us, you piece of betraying shit."

Shikamaru, inhaling the smoke of his cigarette deeply, glanced empty eyed at his friend. "We are here to kill Naruto."

_So he did figure it out, _noticed Kakashi, _I wonder when,_

Kiba, until now standing, collapsed tiredly staring in wide disbelief at both Shikamaru and Kakashi.

"No…" he hissed, balling his fists. "No! I know there's something else. Kurenai-sensei never really liked you but she did always say she respected you for one thing, for your tenacity to never let a comrade die while they were on a mission with you and she said you always pulled it off!"

"Not always," responded Kakashi softly, "But you must understand one thing, Naruto will die, whether we attempt to save him or not, he will die. The demon extraction will kill him. Let us say we storm in, one of us grabs Naruto while rest delays Akatsuki, two minutes, five minutes if the delay was really good, then they will catch up to the one who has Naruto. They will kill that person, fast if they feel generous, slowly if they are angry at us for interrupting their sealing. Naruto wouldn't gain anything, we wouldn't gain anything, Akatsuki would have lost three days, which ultimately wouldn't matter."

"We have to try!" protested Hinata, "E...everything is better than to accept his death!"

"Why?" asked Kakashi, "Because you yourself will die peacefully, thinking "I gave my best" or "At least I have tried"? That history will reflect "they fought well until the bitter end"?

"If we had a one in a million, no one in a billion chance that we eventually might be able to pull it off, you can be assured that I would have tried it but as it is, not one of us has more than a third of their original chakra; we are all exhausted, injured and some of us can't even use most of their usual techniques. We couldn't beat them in top condition but we can't even fight them in this." Here he stopped to look everyone in the eyes, one by one.

"We will storm in, and the minute it takes them to kill all of us, we will give one person the chance to kill Naruto so that the Kyuubi dies, leaving them without all nine tailed beasts. Whatever they might have planned, it won't happen.

"It won't be a meaningless death for Naruto. He would approve, he would put the wellbeing of countless humans before his own…" he trailed of seeing the look on Hinata's usual gentle and kind face; he saw the hatred towards Akatsuki, towards their situation, towards the world and the most intense hatred towards himself.

In all honesty he couldn't really blame her for that; he hated himself too, far more than Hinata ever could. He had failed everything and everyone that had depended on him: the Leaf, his father, his old team, his new team, his teacher, his friends and the sons of the two people he had looked up to the most.

He was going to kill the son of his sensei whom he had disappointed over and over again; he was going to lead a bunch of injured, exhausted but talented and good hearted kids into a suicide mission that had almost no chance of success and he was going to betray every principle the Hidden Leaf and his mentors had fought for. He was going to do, what even his father, a stern and dutiful man, hadn't been able to bring himself to do. He was going to betray his friends, his teachers, his students and the most important people in his life.

Kakashi wished that he could do it without forcing Obito to watch it, but he needed the Sharingan for the attack so he would involuntarily make Obito watch him kill their sensei's only son.

_And it still wouldn't be the worst thing __I have ever done_. No, Hinata couldn't hate him as much as he hated himself.

* * *

A/N

So, that was the first chapter, I am still in the middle of planning this out, so don't expect fast updates. I do have some stuff ready but it will take a while to fully write it out, hope you liked it so far.


	2. Kisame

So, here is chapter 2 guys. It is not very long but I promise the next one will be longer. It will be out in a couple of days.

Please bow to Kyurin and Payce99 for their wonderful help. Without them, you would have to read a chapter much, _much _lower in quality. Thank you two very much for your help.

Fair warning, this story is as much as an AU as it is a crossover, I will change a lot of things that happened in the Naruto manga to fit my needs, simply for the sad fact that I disliked a lot of things in Part II.

But I doubt that many things will come in play so enjoy.

* * *

"If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold you head high, look it squarely in eye and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.'"

-Ann Landers

* * *

"This better fucking work." growled Hidan as he stood on his place on the Gedo Mazo statue where all the tailed beasts were carefully sealed. "We have been channeling chakra into this ugly shitface for days. Can't I take a break or something? My back is killing me, seriously."

"Are you ugly _**and**_ dumb?" snarled Kakazu, "Stop wailing, it is only to be expected to take longer than the other tailed beasts. We're talking about the Nine Tails here, the personification of endless, demonic chakra."

"Yeah," laughed Kisame, "even though we've seen so many hosts, it's still unbelievable how much chakra this one has."

"Coming from you, this is quite impressive." noted Sasori in a slow drawl.

"It is, isn't it?" He looked around, despite being in the Akatsuki for so many years, there were a lot of people he had never seen prior to the Konoha attack. There was Leader-sama, no Pain, who, surprisingly, had seven bodies and all were present, although the six bodies he used to fight were inactive in a corner. It seemed he could not use them during the extraction. Until now all communication was done via the holographic ninjutsu but seeing him in real life proved to be more interesting beyond belief.

His original body was really creeping him out. A_nd if that comes from someone who has blue skin, razor sharp teeth and yellow eyes; that is saying a lot,_ thought Kisame wryly. His partner, Konan, was the opposite. Truly a sight for sore eyes, a beautiful, blue haired woman who apparently could use origami combined with chakra to perform deadly attacks.

_The number of techniques and abilities truly __is limitless._

Then there was Sasori and while he had met the puppeteer quite a few times over the years, he had never seen him outside of the puppet Hiruko. Heck, the first three years he had been convinced that Hiruko _was_ his real body.

Tobi was an odd fellow but it was quite nice to have someone cheerful in this organization, Deidara and Hidan had been the only ones who had brought a bit of life in the Organization but nobody could stand talking to Hidan for more than a few minutes without getting the urge to kill him. This proved to be extremely frustrating seeing as Hidan couldn't die and Deidara really didn't talk as much as one would assume. He only really talked with Sasori anyway, having a grudge against Itachi, disliking Kakuzu and Zetsu and hating Tobi and Hidan.

_I wonder how much he hates me? _

Tobi, who had just recently been promoted from Zetsu's subordinate to a full-fledged Akatsuki member, funnily enough seemed to worship Deidara, going as far as calling him Deidara-senpai. Whether he did that to annoy him or because he truly felt that way Kisame didn't know, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

And of course his partner, Itachi, and while he enjoyed his company and valued his friendship, he knew it was a peculiar one. Itachi was a dangerous man, maybe the most dangerous man he had ever met and what worried him most was that he had never found out Itachi's motivation. Kisame didn't have a clue why Itachi did the things he did or what he worked for.

And despite the clash of looks, it was ironic that Itachi was the monster between the two. While Kisame himself had killed his Daimiyo and Lord and betrayed his country, he didn't kill senselessly. Itachi on the other hand was the poster child of kinslaying and did not discriminate in his victims. Child, woman, man, civilian, shinobi, family, friend or stranger, he killed them all if it helped the mission. Kisame hadn't found the nerve to ask him why, since Itachi never seemed to take any pleasure in it.

Except tormenting his little brother, that had been the only time he had seen a faint smile on Itachi's face, when he used the most terrifying genjutsu in existence on his kid brother.

_Funny how the one time he shows emotions, it makes him even less human than normal._

The rest of Akatsuki was pretty easy to figure out. Pain and Konan wanted world peace, Kakuzu wanted as much money as possible, Hidan wanted as many human sacrifices to his cruel, pagan god as possible, Deidara and Sasori were chasing after perfection of their respective art forms, disturbing as those might be, Zetsu was a cannibalistic freak and Tobi was most likely bat-shit insane, seeing that he was actually enjoying the company of the Akatsuki, an organization full with traitors, mass-murderers and psychopaths.

Kisame's laugh drew a bit of attention but nobody besides Hidan, who just muttered "crazy fucker" under his breath, said anything about it. The swordsman of the Hidden Mist knew he belonged right up here with the rest of them. He knew why he was here; he loved to fight. The rush of battle, the fight to life and death was what kept him up and he loved it. Akatsuki provided him with all the fights he wanted, against strong opponents no less.

_The battle in Konoha had been entertaining_, Kisame thought. It had gone for over four hours and he had never enjoyed a fight like that. There were countless enemies who had been shaved to bits by Samehada. His only regret was that he didn't fight as many strong people as would have liked; especially that he failed to fight that bushy browed freak, the one who had killed his clone back then, annoyed him.

_Pity that I didn't get to fight him.__ That freak managed to keep up with leader who was the strongest shinobi I have ever seen. A fight __against such a strong man__, a fight where I could have died. I wanted that. _

He had been surprised that Konoha fell so easily, but then again, so he mused, they had been the strongest attack force up to date. The many Genin and Chunin never stood a chance, the ANBU and Jonin couldn't get organized fast enough. It was as if Akatsuki's attack had been at a time where they were caught with their trousers down.

_And in a way, I think it was, _Itachi had smuggled them through the detection barrier and they were able to strike at several key places at once, completely catching Konoha of guard.

Konoha had once been the strongest shinobi village but that was long since over. The Senju and Uchiha, the two main founding clans of Konoha were known as the most powerful clans back in their heyday. Nevertheless, they had long died out with Tsunade being the last Senju and the last two Uchiha having defected the village. Their military strength had been crippled by the attack from Sound and Sand three years ago. Their strongest leaders had died and their strongest ninja had either defected or were dead. The only S-class ninja they had left were the Copy Ninja and the Slug Sannin Tsunade and even if they fought together they could not stand up to Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu and Deidara at the same time.

He was a little disappointed that the Third or Fourth Hokages were not alive anymore; if the rumors were true, and they very well seemed to be, either one of those two would have been sufficient to turn the tide of the battle around in Konoha's favor. Alone the thought of standing against those legends was enough to send his blood pumping. The Yellow Flash, the fastest shinobi in history and a true genius for battle and the Professor who bore the title "God of the Shinobi" since he had never lost a fight and was the only shinobi in existence to have complete mastery of every ninja branch, may it genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjutsu, kinjutsu and all others were both opponents he would have loved to fight.

_And still both had died,_ reminded Kisame himself; the First as he sacrificed his life to deal with the Kyuubi, arguably the strongest entity which had set foot on this earth and the second as old age had withered most of his strength away and he died using some incredible jutsu that damaged Orochimaru for quite some time.

_Now that__ is someone whom I wouldn't mind flaying. _

Nobody in the organization had liked Orochimaru; his personality and fighting style were both rather off-putting and disgusting. His experiments on humans had been needlessly cruel and to make it worse they had a pretty bad success rate. It was true that Orochimaru had been strong, but it had been obvious to even Tobi, back then still a subordinate, that the Snake Sannin was going to double-cross them as soon as he could.

It spoke volumes to the man's greed that he chose Itachi of all people to attack first. Itachi may have been a little kid, but one look at him told everyone that this brat was not a pushover. Even less if he arrived with the reputation of wiping out the whole Uchiha clan, a family full with Sharingan user. Orochimaru had been really lucky that Akatsuki had not heard of Orochimaru's injury in time or they might have paid him a visit sooner than he would have liked.

A pity that he didn't get to fight Orochimaru, it would have been very satisfactory to shave the skin of his back. That fight would have been thrilling too. As much as he detested the person, Kisame respected his strength. The danger in facing Orochimaru would be the trouble of getting a hold on him, seeing that the snake had proven himself to be very evasive in battle. Sasori could attest to that when he reported that the Snake Sannin had gotten away when he tried to ambush Sasori on the Heaven and Earth bridge. Sasori had reported that his spy, Kabuto, had switched sides, as he had suspected and had attacked him together with the sannin. Sasori had been able to kill Kabuto but Orochimaru had been able to get away. Sasori had said that he did poison him but he doubted that Orochimaru would die from that. That would have been a sight to behold, both of them were very strong shinobi and if Kisame was honest with himself, Sasori was one of the worst opponents a person like he could face; It would be thrilling and exhilarating to fight him, but also extremely difficult.

Whereas the real danger in the battle of Konoha had come from the numerous skilled Jounin and Chunin but none of them had reached the level to fight shinobi of Akatsuki caliber. Teamwork could only take you so far against opponents who outclassed you that much, even less if they attempted it after being caught off guard. It didn't help that the Akatsuki were good in teamwork too and cooperated seamlessly. You don't survive as an experienced S-class nin if you don't know how to work as a team after all.

_Although, none us really likes working in a team. It is much more satisfying to crush your enemies on your own._

Kisame shifted his weight again, he couldn't blame Hidan for complaining, his own back hurt too. He would much rather do something else.

_A bed, a bit of food, a bit of sake__ to wash it all down and a warm girl squirming next to me; never let it be said that I don't enjoy the finer things in life, _mused Kisame

Unfortunately extracting Tailed Beasts didn't include bathroom-breaks. They couldn't afford resting in fear of the vessel of the Kyuubi waking up and they couldn't exactly take a break in the middle of it.

They had unwillingly tried that with the Six Tails, that was an incident everyone wanted to avoid a second time happening. The Six Tailed Slug had nearly broke free and the two in charge of capturing that had been hard pressed to stop it.

Kakuzu had killed his partner afterwards for breaking off in the middle of the extraction.

Just as he saw Hidan opening his mouth again, no doubt to voice another complaint, the ceiling of the cave they were in broke and a few familiar faces rained down on them.

_How did they find us? We picked a cave we have never been in__, far from Hidden Rain and we were careful not to leave any clues. Our scents were masked and the entrance was sealed.  
_

Kisame knew however, that they did not do that good of a job in fortifying this place as they could; they simply didn't have the chakra to make extensive traps and hindrances. Also, he had to admit, they didn't really believe in being pursued. The cave had been hidden pretty well, they traveled very cautiously and Konoha, the only village which could have possibly been able to tail them, had only broken and injured shinobi left.

_The price of arrogance seems to catch up at the most inconvenient times,_ he noted dryly. _Days without sleep and rest do take their toll, even on us,_

He did not have time to continue his train of thought however, as he had to concentrate on the new enemies. Akatsuki did plan for this; Zetsu, Pain, Kakuzu, Deidara, Tobi and Kisame himself were to remain in their places and hold the Kyuubi where it was to prevent the Kyuubi from escaping and the other four were to engage and dispose of whatever enemy there was while covering those on the places of the statue at the same time.

Thankfully it seemed that only small fry had arrived; Two Hyuuga, a figure who looked most likely like an Aburame, three weird looking kids, another girl with two buns on her head and a dog. All of them injured. None of them someone he recognized, none of them a serious threat for Konan, Sasori, Itachi and Hidan.

The Inuzuka hurled a few smoke bombs in the ranks of Akatsuki, clouding a good deal of their view, Konan, so it seemed, was covered by the pesky chakra eating bugs the Aburame were so fond of using. Konan dealt with them by letting the parts of her covered with bugs "peel off" and let the papers the bugs were sitting on explode.

Her ability surprised Kisame more and more.

Sasori had two puppets out he didn't recognize, both attacking the Hyuugas, while Hidan was fighting with the kid who seemed to be from the Nara clan, if his jutsu were any indication. Meanwhile Itachi had taken on the two remaining kids and the dog.

The fight didn't last for a minute before another three figures dropped from the hole in the ceiling.

_Speaking of the devil__,_ thought Kisame when he recognized one of the three boys that dropped down as Itachi's younger brother Sasuke, and he immediately engaged Itachi who seemed to have killed the kid with the red tattoos on his face and had a shadow of a small smile on his lips.

_He really seems to enjoy tormenting his little brother,_

One of the other two was a young man who turned into some kind of weird monster, kid would probably fit right into their organization, and attacked Sasori who summoned a third puppet, this one Kisame did recognize.

It was the pink haired girl that, so he heard, was the teammate of both, Sasuke and the Kyuubi Container. While the monster kid practically flew at Sasori, with pure chakra emitting from his back which accelerated his leap, with his monstrous arm aiming at Sasori's face. The puppet however blocked the kids first punch with its freaky arm, and punched right back but with a force that would have shattered stone, sending the kid crashing against the cave walls.

_The Slug Hokages apprentice indeed, _appreciated the swordsman._  
_

The last of the kids was the one who drew his attention the most, seeing that the brat was carrying Zabuza's sword. Their eyes met and the brat grinned cheekily and started to run towards him. Kisame couldn't help but grin as well, he always loved to fight one of the Seven Swordsman, even if he didn't hear that Zabuza got replaced, unfortunately it didn't seem that he would get a chance as clouds of paper whirled around the kid and exploded in his face.

Pity, the kid seemed familiar too.

When Kisame's gaze wandered across the room, he noticed that he saw red hair above, and noticed a girl hiding. Kisame grinned

_So this is how they found us, they have a really good sensor type who led Sasuke's little group of misfits right to us. Our chakra and the chakra of the Tail__ed Beast must have been like a volcano in plain sight; impossible to miss and terrifying _

All of this didn't take two minutes and it seemed that his comrades were going to finish it when the Nara brat managed to capture Hidan with his shadow jutsu and the girl with the buns charged right into the middle of the room, through all the loud chaos, smoke and fights where the Kyuubi Container was floating.

But the girl wasn't moving with a speed that a shinobi on her level could move and her left arm was surrounded by lighting.

_Shit._

Everyone who watched the fight came to the same conclusion, the girl had been Kakashi all along, and proved it by taking his normal appearance. That also explained how they were able to overcome the seals and traps that protected the entrance; the Copy Ninja must have found a way to overcome them. No wonder he managed to break through the ceiling.

Kisame knew that none of them could move, so the only hope was that one of the four had noticed it too. And it seemed they had. Itachi had whirled around in the midst of his fight and was dashing to intercept Kakashi and while Itachi's handseal speed far surpassed Kakashi's, their running speed and body flicker was roughly the same. It didn't help that Itachi was the one farthest away from Kakashi and seeing that Sasuke was immediately on Itachi's tail with speed that had dramatically increased since their last encounter years ago, it was doubtful that Itachi would make it.

Even activating his Mangekyo Sharingan and burning Kakashi with Amaterasu would take too long at this point.

Hidan was out since he was still captured in the shadow of the Nara and was cursing louder and more crudely than Kisame had ever heard him before.

Konan was about to do something but the kid with Zabuza's sword leapt in front of her and while Konan managed to cover him in her chakra suppressing paper and slit his throat almost immediately, it too destroyed her chance of stopping Kakashi in time.

Sasori had meanwhile gutted the male Hyuuga and his pink haired puppet had pummeled the face of the monster brat into goo but the Hyuuga girl performed the much famous Kaiten, spinning around while expelling chakra from every pore to have the puppets avoid her and gaining the second Kakashi needed.

When Kakashi's chidori hit the face of the blond, unconscious Kyuubi container, it was as if Kakashi had kicked-in the backdoor to hell. Pure chaos, killing intent and energy visible to the human eye started to fill the cave in seconds, freezing everyone in their steps. Red, evil and sinister chakra emitted in such a speed that Samehada on his back seemed to shrink and shudder. His sword wasn't exactly sentient but it was as close as an inanimate object could get to it. Samehada was able to sense and devour chakra and whatever happened right then, was apparently scaring his sword.

A few seconds before Kisame would never have thought his sword capable of any sort of feelings.

The Sealing Statue crumbled as the force of the chakra of the Kyuubi tore it apart and the chakra of all nine Bijuu started to mix. The energy became too much, too massive to endure. The walls and ground started to break; the blood flowing out of the corpses seemed to boil. That much energy was never meant to be in one space, it was never intended to mingle in such a way and the malicious glow blinded Kisame, striking fear in every part of his being as an inhuman explosion engulfed him.

Strangely, the only thing he had heard was the heartbreaking wail of desperation and anguish the Hyuuga girl gave when the Copy Ninja had managed to kill the Kyuubi Vessel.

* * *

A/N This was it, sorry again for the relative shortness, I was aiming to make each chapter between 4000-6000 words, in the vain hope to hit the 5000 words mark but there was just not that much to write in this one without stuffing too much useless exposition in here.

In fact, I am tempted to take the Orochimaru part out.

So this is the transition to the One Piece world, obviously. Big explosion sending them into another dimension may sound lame but I didn't really have much of a choice here. The MS of Kakashi was used so much by better authors that I ruled that one out from the beginning, having a higher being do the job would be hard to fit in a story. I played with the thought of a summoning ritual going wrong, a variation of the idea Lathis had provided a long time ago for another story but it would have been immensely difficult to engineer a situation where all the people I intended to be caught in it.

So, the screwing up of the extraction ritual it is. Don't know if it was done before but hey, maybe the chakra of all nine tailed beasts may very well cause this kind of thing? No room for absolutes in this kind of manga.

Like every author, reviews are my caffeine and I work better with them. *hint, hint*


	3. Lee

Chapter three people, hope you enjoy it. Thanks again for Payce 99 and Kyurin for their unending patience and help.

Also, with the help of Payce 99 and Kyurin I went over the past two chapters and fixed quite a lot of the mistakes and added a few things here and there so it might not hurt to reread those two chapters before starting the third one. It isn't necessary though.

Without further ado:

* * *

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

-Bruce Lee

* * *

When Lee regained consciousness he felt worse than ever. His injuries; the cracked ribs and severe cuts on his arms from the battle at Konoha were hurting, and the burns he gained from the clay guys last explosion were pretty serious. Not to mention all the bruises that Itachi had given him when he beat Lee like a drum.

_A__nd he didn't even use any jutsu._

All of that still couldn't compare to the pain of losing his team and home.

He slowly started to get up and took a look around. He was proud to discover that he could walk, knowing he owed it entirely to Gai-sensei, who had trained him for five years and turned his body into that of a nearly perfect human.

_Well, not perfect in the aesthetic sense_, thought Lee sardonically. Nine out of ten girls would call him ugly and the tenth probably did have a weird fetish of some sort but rather perfect in that it was pushed to the limits of body strength and durability. He had a perfect balance- on par with Neji's - he could move very fast for a longer time than most people, and his body was strong enough to shrug off most punches and kicks without being bothered by them. Tenten had complained that punching him felt like punching steel, though she was satisfied when she had cut him pretty badly with a few kunai only a few seconds later.

So Lee walked, taking his environment in. He was on a beach, the wide ocean in front of him. Lee didn't think much of it; clearly whatever happened was out of his area of knowledge. It wasn't that he was stupid, he'd just never studied the deeper aspects of space-time ninjutsu, and what else could have brought him here? The idea that some people had found him and brought him here without treating his wounds was unlikely since it would take five days to travel to the nearest ocean. Neither was it likely that they travelled so fast that his injuries didn't get worse. The ocean was too far from the cave the Akatsuki had been hiding in after all.

He decided to follow the beach; chances were he could find a village or a haven or something like that. Lee opted to walk slowly, since he didn't want to push his limits in the condition he was in. It was true that he was prone to overdo physical activities but he knew when to behave.

_If I can't find humans near the water I shall search the forests over __there while jumping on one leg, _he promised himself wryly, feeling that if he didn't receive treatment in any way or form rather soon, his left leg would most likely give out and, then he would have no other choice anyways. The damaged bone would snap or break if he applied too much strain on it, strain like walking around for hours on end.

Twenty minutes of restless walking didn't bring him closer, neither to a village nor to the end of the beach, and with the way he had felt, it seemed that he was walking in a curve, which gave him reason to suspect that he was on an island.

But did it really matter where he was? Konoha was gone, his teammates and his friends were gone and Gai-sensei was gone. Maybe a few survived but it was doubtful. The ones he could imagine surviving were Sasuke, Kakashi, and a few of Akatsuki, and he didn`t want to see any one of them.

Vengeance was not a concept that came to him; he didn't know how Sasuke could do it. He had been angry at every death, but after a short time, the anger went away and was replaced with sadness. A feeling that he knew wouldn't go away if he killed someone.

Gai-sensei had said that the path of vengeance was only leading into suffering and as always, Gai-sensei had been right.

His left leg was starting to hurt more and he was pretty sure that he was bleeding internally. His ribs were starting to give him more and more trouble, the cuts and burns stung and he hoped that the foolish use of the gates in the last two days hadn't torn up all of his muscles.

Obviously not, since he was able to move. They still hurt though. Lee had never been good at ignoring pain. He could endure but never ignore it.

Another hour passed before he finally saw a small village in the horizon. He was glad-maybe he could find someone who would treat him there. Now that he saw it, the realization of the death of nearly everyone he knew hit him.

This wasn't the first time Fate dealt him a pretty bad hand, and Lee had his doubts that it would be the last, but if there was one thing that Gai-sensei had taught him it was to win with even the worst hand.

Within twenty minutes he had made way to the small settlement. He could see a small dock with a few small ships and one big vessel with three masts, white sails with a blue bird on it and the word "Marines" written under it.

He limped forward and entered the village searching for someone alive to have them help him but every door was closed and nobody was on the streets. Lee didn't like this. Either this was a trap or he had the worst luck ever to get into a bad situation while he was in the second worst condition he had ever been in his life.

Lee could imagine Fate sitting across him, grinning and showing him the ace he had in his hand. He could also imagine smashing his fist into Fate's face, but elaborate metaphors weren't going to get him anywhere so Lee asked himself the question which allowed him to deal with most situations that he had had to overcome; what would Gai-sensei do?

Before he could think of anything however, he was approached by two men wearing white-blue sailors' uniforms, no doubt from this Marine organization that the ship belonged to.

"Who are you?" asked the left one, a man in his late twenties, sternly. Both were holding strange contraptions with no sharp edge but a trigger and an open mound. They were clearly weapons of some sort and Lee wasn't in the right state to take on unknown weapons. Not yet anyways.

"I am sorry, sir," he began. "I was ambushed when I was with my friends, and woke up not two hours ago not knowing where I was. I took a direction by random, hoping to find humans and maybe a doctor who could treat me."

The man's face softened slightly. "I am afraid we can't get you to our ship's doctor, since he is busy mending our own injured, but I am told that this village has a doctor on their own. I will lead you to him if you can answer a few more questions. I understand that you are injured but I have to make sure you are not a pirate."

His partner was eying Lee distrustfully and Lee had no delusions why. He knew his way of dressing was weird to most people. The green jumpsuit, the orange legwarmers and his Chunin vest were highly unusual, even more so since most of them were bloody, torn and dirty. Add his thick eyebrows, bowl cut hair and his eyes and most people became wary of him.

Especially if it were people from an organization he had never heard of. Seeing the way they treated him, despite seeing his Konoha headband strapped to his belly, they obviously didn't know who he was and whom he worked for. If they didn't recognize the leaf symbol, one of the seven or eight most well-known symbols and sigils in the world, it wouldn't do any good mentioning Konoha, much less since it got destroyed.

_Does the loss of blood make me smarter, I wonder?_

"A pirate, sir?" asked Lee surprised. "I don't know how to prove it to you besides swearing on my honor that I am not a pirate."

"Take off the vest and free your upper body." commanded the marine on the right, who seemed younger than his comrade. "A way to start proving your innocence is to see whether you have a tattoo of one of the more famous pirate crews". This was interesting to Lee. So pirates around here branded themselves? Where he came from, pirates who were caught were branded forcefully.

Lee slowly took off his vest and carefully removed the upper part of his jumpsuit. He clenched his teeth so as not to hiss in pain, and after the marine on the left checked him, he nodded to his partner.

"Follow me, we will bring you to the doctor. My partner and I will stand guard nonetheless; I hope you can accept that. This village had a pirate problem very recently and we came here, accompanying agents of the Government, to deal with it. The World Government protects its citizens as best as it can. Don't worry, if you're not a pirate, we will protect you as well."

Lee thanked him and started to follow, not bothering to dress himself again. It would have been too painful and pointless, since the doctor, if he agreed to treat Lee that is, would have to take off his beloved jumpsuit anyway.

It wasn't a long way to the doctor, who turned out to be and old man in his sixties and once he'd made it, the doctor immediately made him sit down.

"Dear God, lad," he said, sounding astonished. "How were you able to move?"

"Is there a problem?" asked the older marine curiously. The doctor snorted disdainfully and looked at the marine over his glasses, which made him hastily add, "I mean, besides the obvious injuries."

"Not a problem, but the young man here has broken bones, a really damaged leg, damaged ribs, burns, cuts, bruises and really strained muscles and that is only what I can tell after a brief examination. You really walked for two hours?"

Lee met his eyes. "Yes, it was painful and I had to walk slowly, but I did it. Hard work, dedication and the flames of youth are the strong pillars that keep me up."

The doctor laughed. "Flames of youth huh? Boy, whatever made you walk that long with those injuries are no mere flames, it is a furnace."

He carefully treated the wounds, bandaged them, and set the bones straight and after a good hour Lee was clean, disinfected and thoroughly bandaged. He then put his hand on Lee's wrist and simultaneously checked his watch.

"There you go lad." said the doctor. "Mind telling me your name?"

"Lee," he answered. "Rock Lee." The man laughed again. "Rock certainly fits." He then looked more serious. "Are you a pirate Lee, or are you affiliated with the Revolutionaries?"

"No." he didn't show his confusion on the Revolutionary part. This would all go much more smoothly if they didn't know that he had no clue about their organizations.

The doctor turned to the marines.

"Petty Officer, this young men is well trained and a prime example on how far you can push the human body, but he ain't no pirate."

"How can you tell?"

"You can tell if someone lies by the pulse. If it speeds up, you know they are hiding the truth and his was steady. Besides, if this boy's a pirate, then I'm an Admiral."

The Petty Officer regarded Lee for another moment and nodded. "Can you give us a description on who attacked you?"

Lee, now that the doctor had released his wrist, leaned back. "A group of man in strange cloaks."

"Do you know why?"

"They were raving about demons, I think they were some sort of cultists with their cloaks and all," answered Lee without batting an eye. He may be honest to the citizens of his village and naïve at times, but he was also a well trained shinobi and every shinobi worth their salt could lie convincingly to evade interrogation by unprofessional interrogators, especially by telling half-truths.

"Demons?" repeated the Petty Officer surprised. "I wasn't aware of cultist activities on this Island."

"Neither was I," said the doctor, without waiting to being asked. "Then again, I doubt that they would try to get much attention. We are close to Whitebeard's territory after all and he doesn't take too kindly to those kinds of people."

The Petty Officer's mouth thinned. "You sound fond of him." he remarked coolly.

The doctor laughed again."Don't worry lad, I am not a pirate. But even a marine like yourself, should be able to admit that his presence causes some stability around these parts." The doctor started to put away his tools. "But I have no interest in Whitebeard coming here, he is still a pirate after all, and they seldom bring anything more than death and misfortune."

The Petty Officer seemed uncomfortable, probably because the doctor's words struck true. So he went back to asking questions.

"How many were they and could you describe them?"

"Ten," Lee answered, "and they were wearing hoods." He doubted that describing the members of Akatsuki would do him much good here. Besides Lee had no delusions how describing a shark man with a giant sword, a person who was black and white and a plant and seven guys with red hair, piercings and ringed eyes would be for his case.

"And where were you attacked? Did you see any of those friends of yours that you mentioned?"

Lee knew mentioning his friends had been a mistake. "I doubt that they are alive, sir. They had loaded us on a small boat and when I found myself awake, I was alone, without a boat. And I doubt that my friends would have left me alone."

The Petty Officer sighed. "It happens more often than you think. Very well, thank you for your information. We will keep an eye out for cultists around these parts. For the remainder of the day please, stay here. It would do you no good to get caught in the eventual crossfire. The marines will wrap up this incident today." The two saluted and left the room.

"What kind of incident did he mean?" asked Lee

The doctor scratched his short, white beard. "You see, since a week or so ago, this village has had a problem with a pirate crew here. And it seems that they were meeting with a few revolutionaries. Seeing that this is the Grand Line, pirates are of no surprise and every town or village has means to call for Marines. So we called and they sent a ship with some bigshot agent of the Government to take care of things. That guy though," the doctor shuddered. "The pirates have no chance against a man like that. Especially a no-name pirate crew no one here has ever heard of."

Lee nodded and before he could answer, he yawned. The doctor chuckled. "It's not surprising for you to be tired. Your body was under a lot of strain in the last few days. You should sleep."

Lee nodded and was soon asleep.

* * *

When Lee woke up again, it was night and the doctor was nowhere to be seen. So he got up, got dressed in the clothes that the doctor had given him, picked up his kunai pouch and his headband and left the house. It nearly broke his heart to leave the beautiful jumpsuit that Gai-sensei had given him behind, but it was not in any shape to be worn again. At least not until it was fixed. Lee vowed to find a tailor up to the task.

He was moving carefully and while he was nowhere near being fit for combat, he still was able to stalk silently in the shadows, albeit a lot slower than he would have liked. Sneaking through the night had always been one of his least favorite things to do. Lee had realized a long time ago that he was unfit to suit the model ninja role that was expected of him. Not only was he limited by his body, but his personality was simply not suited to the cloak and dagger lifestyle; sneaking into someone's room at night to slit their throat while they soundly slept... that didn't appeal to him in the slightest.

Lee was a lot like Naruto and Kiba who loved to face their enemies head on in a fight and defeat the same time, Lee also wasn't naive enough to believe in honor and fair fights like Naruto seemed to. He himself had never been in a fair fight. Still, he thought that there was something in an open fight that had meaning- more meaning than killing someone who couldn't see their death coming. Putting your strength against somebody else's was exhilarating.

Gai-sensei had been the same and that was why their team hardly handled those kinds of missions, having mostly been assigned to either guard missions or missions where engaging ninja opponents was guaranteed.

That was why he stilled loved his profession and he was glad to stick with it to the end. He fought to protect Konoha, help people on his missions and prove his way of the ninja.

It didn't mean he was bad at stealth. The academy teachers, as much as they had disliked him, had still managed to train him properly. Gai-sensei of course had further hones Lee's abilities in that area as well. It was difficult to move without making a sound. Naturally nobody could move like that. Most animals could still detect you, but for humans it would be nearly impossible unless they had special abilities. So, while humans for the most part were unable to fool animals, they could manage avoid being detected by other humans.

The streets were empty so Lee didn't have to worry about avoiding people. When he arrived at the dock the Marine vessel was floating silently in the water, basked with a dim glow from the torches burning on deck. Lee could see several marines guarding the ship, some more standing on the dock and people moving on deck.

He didn't care about those; he had no intention sneaking on a military vessel in his condition any way. Lee did want to find out more about the Marines, though. Especially that marine-agent the doctor had been talking about.

So Lee kept himself well hidden in the shadows and observed the guards. He wasn't able to hear anything, their voices hardly carried over to him, but from their body language they seemed to be rather tense.

_What had they faced that made them worry like that_? Lee wondered, curious about the pirates' behavior. With the way the two Marines had spoken earlier, it certainly hadn't sounded as if those pirates were any kind of problem. It may have been a lie on the Marines' part- military operators were prone to lie to civilians and Neji had done it often enough, but the two marines hadn't tried to sound convincing. They had believed those pirates to be of no threat to them.

Then again, Lee had lost a lot of blood before talking to the marines, so his perception may have been off a bit.

Lee remained in the cover of the crates for over two hours before something worthwhile happened; a group of marines arrived from outside of the town, obviously carrying prisoners in their midst.

When they got near enough, Lee was able to see better. The glare of the torches wasn't blinding his view anymore, he could make out around ten marines. A few of the marines were holding torches while the others were keeping watch over four prisoners, who looked to be in a bad state. Bloody and shackled in thick iron cuffs, the prisoners were marched forward."

A man who was wearing a dark suit, a white tie and a strange hat led the group. His wavy hair was shoulder-length and weirdest of all and while he looked like someone working at a desk, it was obviously that he was a fighter and a deadly on at that.

In fact, Lee had no doubt that it was him who had injured and caught those prisoners, yet his clothes, from Lee's distance, didn't seem to be dirty at all.

"Next time, if you get the Intel wrong, I will be much less forgiving Captain," said the man in the suit, as they passed Lee. The Captain, who was walking next to him, was clearly nervous when he stuttered an apology.

"I don't mind fulfilling my orders," continued the man, "but I don't appreciate being pulled out of my important long term assignment to take care of a pirate crew that a man of your rank should've been able to handle alone. Clearly the standards to attain the rank have dropped, if those were out of your league Captain."

The Captain signaled his men to take the prisoners away and turned to face the suited man, waiting for his men to get out of ear shot.

"I am really sorry," started the man, "It was reported that it was a crew that was affiliated with the Kaido pirates who have some very strong members, pirates that my team could not take on alone. When we sent for help, we didn't expect that the Headquarters would send someone of your talents to us."

The man's cold eyes didn't leave the Captain's face, making him shift uncomfortably, but to his credit, the Captain did not break the gaze. After a few seconds, the suit man smiled coldly.

"We will take off immediately." said the man. "I need to take the next sea train as soon as possible. My leave was already too long as it is. I did not expect to have so many assignments in such a short period of time."

The man saluted immediately. "Yes sir, we will take off as soon as the prisoners are stowed away." The Captain marched off, starting to bark orders loudly while the "big-shot agent" let his gaze wander around the dock, briefly touching upon Lee's hiding place, but Lee was sure that he was not detected. He was grateful for that, for the man hardly seemed like the kind of person to let someone eavesdropping on him get away.

_That man is dangerous, _thought Lee, _that explains the nervousness of the doctor and the guards. It weren't the pirates were the danger to them but the guy sent to deal with them_

It didn't take long for the ship to take off; as after a few minutes, the man stepped on the ship as well and the vessel set sails. Lee didn't move until the ship had disappeared in the horizon.

He didn't feel sad about it. This had been entirely too close. Those sailors had been soldiers, with uniforms and discipline, which meant they were part of a rather big organization. The way the agent behaved did look like he was an important member, but they had the resources to pull him off a long-term missions to do some other work, which further showed the organization-theory to be correct. They did mention a World Government and with a name as presumptuous as that, he should have heard of it. He knew that the Land of Fire and Konoha especially were not part of that.

On the other hand, neither did he know the island he was on, so maybe he was on another continent. Gai-sensei had talked about lands on the other side of the ocean, and so had Neji, who said that the Hyuuga-clan had sent a few branch family members a few years ago over the ocean, members who had yet to return, but to be fair, their return had been anticipated for a few years down the line.

Pity he couldn't send them a note saying that they shouldn't bother returning. He immediately felt bad for thinking that, it was not like him. He shook his head and continued pondering on what to do and promised himself that he had to gather as much information as possible in the next two days as he set to return to his bed.

* * *

The next two days had been slow; he had slept for the most part in the doctor's house, only waking up to eat and use the sanitary devices in the house. He finally felt rested enough to take a stroll during the day. He had attempted to question the doctor in the times when he had been awake, without trying to sound suspicious. The most he had learned was that this Marines Organization was the official military of a Government that reached throughout five oceans and united nearly 200 nations.

This seemed unbelievable to Lee, how could such an alliance work? The Hidden Villages waged war every decade or so, and there were only five big ones and a handful smaller ones but they could never make the peace last.

And here they managed it with 200 nations. Their military strength must be enormous, big enough to steamroll Konoha, if Konoha had still been standing. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if the leftover villages would get conquered by the World Government. It might mean peace.

He banished those thoughts from his head; it wasn't like him to think so cynically. He walked once again to the docks and this time sat down, legs swinging freely. _I don't know what to do._

He really didn't, back home he always had an agenda. What good would proving his way of the ninja do? Whom would he prove it to? And didn't the obliteration of everything he loved prove that he was wrong anyway?

_Gai-sensei would punch me if I said anything like this out loud._

Lee watched the ocean, he watched as children ran past him, he watched a few boys his age fishing, he watched one guy taking his boat out to sea and after a few hours he saw a ship in the horizon. At first it didn't interest him much; whatever came, it would hardly be there for him. However, after some time it became apparent that this ship was huge, easily the biggest thing he had ever seen. He was just about to say something when the boys next to him, who had also seen the ship, gasped.

"I don't believe it." whispered one of them, letting his fishing rod drop. "We are so fucked."

A few days ago, the use of such a word would have made him protest; now it hardly fazed Lee.

"What is it?" he asked, finally noticing the black flag the ship had hoisted. "Pirates?"

"Don't you recognize the flag? The skull with a mustache and a cross of bones behind it. Those are not some run of the mill pirates, this is Whitebeard." The boy was close to hysterics now.

"Oh, right." acknowledged Lee, "How strong are they?"

"Do the words, 'strongest man alive' say something to you? Even the World Government and the Marines are scared to take him on. He has the most dangerous group of pirates since the Pirate King, maybe even better." Without saying another word, he bolted, no doubt going to warn the village, the others dashing right after him. _Or he is going to hide,_ came a more cynical thought.

With the speed the ship was apparently coming, he would have maybe ten minutes. Lee had decided what to do. Carefully he removed a few of the bandages that limited his movement the most. Then checked his kunai pouch, reminding himself that he had only a bit of wire, a few shuriken and six kunai left. Lee also strapped on his forehead protector and started to warm up a bit.

Lee had several choices before him; he could go and hide. No doubt, he would be able to find a safe place long before the ship arrived and it was unlikely that the pirates would be able to find him but Lee didn't see a reason for that. What should he live for anyway? He could also help the villagers in whatever they were doing in a time like this but strangely, he also didn't want to do that.

No, he was going to fight. This way, he would be more useful to the villagers if he bought them time. He would fight and most likely perish but he would die protecting innocent people, people who had treated him nicely.

_If I am going to die _he thought, _I might as well die fighting the strongest man in the world. If I beat them, I will prove Gai-sensei right. He would not have wasted his life training a failure._

Five minutes later, the ship docked, dropping its anchor. The ship was interesting and unique. It was huge and the figurehead was a giant whale head. It had four big masts with several sails and its flag was waving wildly in the wind.

From the point Lee was standing he could barely see the people on the ship; however, a few guys were leaning casually against the handrail.

"Pretty brave to stand there on your own," remarked the guy with the short dark yellow hair. "Not many people would do that."

Lee didn't answer- he didn't know what to say. He was not the one for witty small talk; he disliked it.

"Not going to answer huh?" quipped the guy next to him, the one wearing a weird orange hat.

"I have no intention to let even one pirate pass," answered Lee finally, opting to say what he was going to do clearly. He had expected a few reactions; threats and insults for one, laughter for another or disbelief on their faces. He was surprised to see none of that.

"I had a feeling you would say that." said the first guy wryly. He then turned his head.

"Pops, the kid won't allow us to set foot on the island!" he yelled and Lee couldn't detect a hint of mockery in his voice.

The strange laughter he heard sent shivers down his spine. And then the voice said something he couldn't make out.

"I am afraid we have to insist," repeated the guy with the short yellow hair, leaning towards Lee again.

"The villagers were kind to me," said Lee, "I have to repay that. They are clearly afraid of you and I will do my best to keep them safe."

The guy scratched his head, looking a bit sad, and turned around and repeated Lee's words. The guy with the hat was grinning while a blond man next to him was snickering. The huge man with the short hair on the other side of the first guy looked disapprovingly at Lee.

Lee could have sworn he heard the same strange laughter again and the voice boomed, no doubt saying his next orders.

"It seems we have clash of interest here," started the pirate with the yellow hair. "And it doesn't seem you are willing to relent, so here's a proposal. You come up and fight one of us. You win and we sail away, we win and we enter the island."

Lee didn't really trust them but it was a better offer than dealing with God knew how many pirates leaping down at the same time at him while he was injured, the pirates of the supposedly strongest man alive, no less.

Better ask though, "Why would you propose that? It doesn't seem very…" Lee struggled for the right word, "pirate-y to me."

The blond guy who hadn't talked yet responded this time. "We're the Whitebeard pirates. Ganging up on a kid would make us look bad, don't you think?"

_Not as bad as being beaten by a kid, _thought Lee, _if I can't beat the strongest pirates in the world I will have failed Gai-sensei,_

Lee nodded and asked permission to jump up to the deck.

The yellow haired pirate laughed and repeated his question back to his captain; this time the laughter was so loud Lee could make out that it sounded like 'Guarararara', a very strange way to laugh indeed.

He turned to Lee again and nodded. Taking that as an invitation, Lee leaped up, reaching for the handrail and taking in the view of the deck.

It was full with dozens of pirates, all dressed differently but most of them armed in some way. The four guys he had seen and spoken with had gone to the middle of the deck. The most impressive sight though was the huge man, the largest man Lee had ever seen, sitting on a big, comfortable chair with numerous devices attacked to him, devices that Lee recognized as oxygen and medical sensors.

He didn't looked like he needed it, but the man was old, as far as Lee could tell, but still muscular, fit and with an impressive posture. His chest was full of scars and he wore a headband, but his most striking feature was the huge white crescent moon shaped mustache that no doubt was the reason for his name.

He was surrounded by his troops and a few nurses who, Lee noticed, were all very attractive and dressed in attire that would have ensured his stays in hospitals without problems.

Despite his age and the treatment he was receiving, Lee had no trouble believing the moniker as the strongest man in the world.

Whitebeard laughed again. "So you are the lad who stands so bravely against us. And here I thought kids with backbones like yours don't exist anymore."

Lee wasn't sure of what to do so he bowed rather quickly and informally. The bow was too short to be considered polite, but it still conveyed some respect. If Lee was sure of one thing it was that this man, pirate or not, demanded respect from everyone. Still, he wasn't going to bow all that much to a pirate.

Seeing his short bow, Whitebeard grinned in amusement. "Even polite, that is even rarer. Normally young brats like you take the first opportunity to throw around wild insults and boasts to show how tough they are. Even Ace here was like that." He nodded to the pirate with the orange hat who grinned cockily.

"It's part of my charming attitude, really," he said, which drew lots of laughter from the crew. Even Whitebeard seemed amused.

"Well then, let's not waste the young man's time any longer. Who wants to fight?" Whitebeard glanced at Lee's face. "Or do you have any preference?"

Lee figured that most people knew who was in Whitebeard's crew but so far Lee knew only him.

"I would rather fight you," admitted Lee, "if your health permits it."

This time the crew did laugh, but apparently not because of Lee's suicidal wish to fight Whitebeard, but rather for his comment regarding the old man's health. The one who laughed the loudest, however, was Whitebeard himself.

"Lad, even if I had a heart attack right now, I still could fight," he said, grinning widely, only to burst out laughing again. Lee didn't know why but he believed him.

"But no, you will have to settle for someone else. If I were to fight it would hardly be fair. I see you are injured, too." He pointed at Lee's countless.

"I am forced to admit that I don't know anyone else from your crew." Lee said. "So I will fight whoever volunteers. I would like to fight the second strongest though, if that causes no bother."

Whitebeard's gaze landed on the spot where Ace and the guy he talked with were standing.

"Clearly he means you," said Ace, smacking the other guys shoulder rather hardly. "You are the first division commander after all, Marco."

Marco on the other hand looked clearly unmotivated. "I'd rather have you fight him." He said. "I've hardly slept for two nights and probably won't put up a good fight. After all, Whitebeard's second division commander is still a better fighter than most people face. You are stronger than me anyways."

Ace seemed to want to protest but ultimately relented and took the place between Whitebeard and Lee.

"I hope you're not offended." teased Ace playfully.

Ace was taller than him, wearing nothing on his upper body but a red necklace and a strange orange hat with the two faces on it. He had black shorts and boots, had a knife strapped on his belt and apparently a kunai pouch on his left leg.

Lee shook his head and took his normal stance, one arm positioned above his hip on his back, the other held out in front of him while his feet were at a ninety degree angle. Everything in Ace's posture screamed strong- Lee had no doubts that this would be an incredibly hard fight.

"My name is Rock Lee," he started. "The Green Beast of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

He paused for a second to glance at his own borrowed clothes before he felt the need to add; "I usually wear green clothes." as to explain his nickname.

"Portgas D. Ace, also called Fire Fist." Ace grinned widely. "Happy to meet you."

Lee took this as the sign to attack. He dashed forwards, jumped and spun around, his kick aiming at Ace's face. His sprint, jump and spin, combined with his already impressive strength were hard to block for a normal shinobi, since it tended to break their bones if they tried.

Ace clearly was far above of the level of a normal shinobi , as he effortlessly blocked the kick with his left hand. His right arm shot forwards to hit Lee in the stomach, but Lee twisted his body in mid-air, spun over Ace's head and tried to deliver a punch. The pirate managed to evade the attack by jumping forward.

Lee landed with a grunt, his left leg hurting as much as his ribs did, but he didn't have time to care as Ace was running towards him. Ace's punch would have hit him in the face, but Lee's body reacted automatically, programmed to do so in the countless hours he trained his taijutsu against people far superior to him.

His right hand caught Ace's wrist, and at the same time he stepped to the left, pulling Ace to himself. The force of his own punch and Lee's pull made Ace stumble forwards and before he could ready himself, Lee slammed his left fist full force against Ace's nose with the strength of a sledgehammer and the nose of the pirate broke with a loud crunch.

Ace flew hard against the wall of the ship, hitting his head. His hat had dropped to the side, The pirates who were looking, laughed at Ace and applauded Lee.

Lee didn't have the delusion that Ace would go down like that, and he was not disappointed. Ace stood up, his grin stretching even wider.

"Wow, you do pack a punch."

"You are most kind." answered Lee.

Ace charged again but this time, he was faster. Lee could barely react when Ace's left leg smashed against his right arm, and before Lee could initiate his own attack, Ace delivered a kick with his other leg against Lee's head, effectively sending him crashing to the ground. Apparently, Ace himself had incredible physical strength as well.

This time the laughter was aimed at him and the applause went to Ace.

Lee stood up, realizing how hopeless his situation was. In top form, he may have beaten this guy. Maybe. His injuries, however, had made even the small amount of dodging and blocking nearly impossible and right now he couldn't afford to draw out the fight any longer.

"Are you a genius of combat, Ace-san?" asked Lee, as he tried to calm down.

Ace grinned, " Yeah, you might say that."

Lee started to smile, "Than it is fortunate that it is you I am fighting Ace-san." _Watch me, Gai-sensei. I will prove your teachings right, a dead-last will defeat a genius._

Lee decided to use the move that would almost certainly cost his life. He opened the first chakra gate, the Gate of Opening.

Ace regarded him curiously, not interrupting Lee even if he clearly could, no doubt wanting to see what Lee could offer.

It took quite a bit of willpower and endurance of pain as his body screamed in protest when he forcefully opened the first gate and felt the chakra flowing through his brain. It allowed him to immediately open the second gate; the Gate of Healing. The chakra was flowing to his muscles and nerves, making him ignore the pain and the strain, allowing Lee to fight better and stronger. This was a feeling that was denied to him unless he opened the gates; the feeling of chakra flowing through his body.

It was hazardous to his health to open the gates in top condition, to do so while being injured to this degree was nothing short of insanity.

Luckily, hardly anyone had considered him sane.

With newfound speed he dashed forward, far faster than before, his damaged leg not bothering him and he vanished from Ace's view. Ace, however, as surprised as he was, was clearly not fighting a faster foe for the first time and immediately whirled around to intercept the attack that would come from behind.

Unfortunately for Ace, neither was Lee a novice in fighting an opponent who had faced faster enemies before. Lee ran circles around Ace and attacked from the side he was originally facing, kicking Ace hard in the side, lifting him from the ground and sending him crashing against the wall of the cabin.

Not giving Ace a chance to defend, he dashed to him again, kicking him with an overhead. This time, however, Ace was able to block and grabbed his leg, whirling Lee over his head and throwing him forcefully to the ground.

Lee recovered in seconds and managed to hit Ace with both legs under the chin, lifting him several meters from the ground. In a split second he had jumped after him, grabbed him from behind and started to spin both, himself and Ace while nearing the floor of the ship with impressive velocity.

Shortly before impact, Lee let go of Ace, but with the lack of bandages Lee had on hand to restrict the his opponents movements, Ace was able to avoid being nailed to the ground, and so he rolled away and stood up.

He was breathing faster; he had bruises over his body, and his nose was broken and bloody but he was grinning as if he was having the time of his life.

Lee couldn't help himself and returned the grin.

"The fire of youth is burning strong in you, Ace-san."

For one moment Ace seemed dumbstruck and then started to roar with laughter.

"More than you can think my friend."

Lee was fighting with skill and precision he had acquired after practicing several different taijutsu styles for countless hours. Ace was fighting with a battle instinct he had gained through the hundreds of battles he had fought in; his natural born instincts were more than enough to make up for his lack of style and his incredible strength and speed exceeded Lee's. Maybe there wouldn't be as huge of a difference if Lee was healed, but he doubted it.

But this was a battle he had wanted, fighting against someone who was literally born to fight… and by defeating him he would validate Gai-sensei's teachings.

Lee attacked again- he had to, since the gate would close any second and he would probably die. A flurry of punches and kicks assaulted Ace, but the pirate was able to compete with Lee, until Lee saw an opening in one of his opponent's counterpunches.

He deflected the punch, smashed his fist strong against Ace's solar plexus, and when Ace coiled over Lee's knee, forcefully met Ace's forehead, once again sending Ace flying. Lee jumped hastily after him, started to spin around in mid jump and when he was above the flying body of Ace, he let his right foot smashed against Ace's face. This was a finishing move, cracking the skull open and smashing the brain.

At least it would have been if Ace's face hadn't turned to fire the second Lee's foot touched the others face. In shock, Lee jumped back the second his leg touched the ground, but due to the force of the kick, he didn't manage to hold his balance and stumbled to the ground, looking at Ace in disbelief.

_What the…_

Ace stood up, a gaping hole where his face once was, but slowly flames started to close the hole and in a few seconds Ace's face was restored, alongside his cheeky grin.

"I am sorry pal, had to stop holding back my Devil-Fruit at that point."

"You can turn your body into fire?" asked Lee incredulously. "I have never heard of this bloodline."

"It is a Devil-Fruit ability," explained Ace. It obviously wasn't the first time he explained it to someone. "I can turn into fire at will and shoot fire. I'm a flame man." To prove his point, he turned his right arm into fire, the flames taking the reminiscent shape of an arm. The sound of the burning fire seemed deafening to Lee as he looked at the arm in shock.

_How can I beat someone who can turn into fire without ninjutsu or genjutsu? Is it my fate to only fight enemies who can't be overcome with taijutsu alone?_

Lee didn't have an answer, so he took a deep breath and started to run, clearly wanting to continue this fight. He had to beat him somehow; there had to be a way. Maybe throwing him into the water, fire wouldn't work there. Yet before he could gain any speed, the gates closed abruptly and he collapsed to the ground, miraculously retaining his consciousness. Ace was immediately by his side, as were several of the other crew members.

"You okay?" Ace asked worriedly, clearly not wanting to win this way.

"You held back," said Lee accusingly, as he started to feel pain again, even more so than before.

"Seems like I lose Ace-san," mumbled Lee tiredly. "Again." _As if I expected anything else. Forgive me, Gai-sensei,_

But Lee couldn't think any more as sweet blackness took away all the pain.

* * *

A/N So that was chapter 3, the first one in the One Piece "world". Hope you liked it. Next chapter will be either Sasuke or Hinata, depends on which one will be done first.

Before I get any comments on how OOC you think Lee is, I want to say something; In most fanfiction, Lee is little more than a gag. He is hyperactive, dumb as a rock, yells constantly and every third word is youth, flames, or Gai-sensei. Now I admit that he is unique in his behavior, and naive at times however, he is not a retard. He is a shinobi who has reached the rank of a Chunin. He can be serious when the situation warrants it, he doesn't scream youth over and over again and while he may be easily excitable, he is not a five year old child. He is a trained professional.

And this is a situation where he lost everyone important to him, but regardless of that, I would never have written him like screaming buffoon he is so often portrayed as.

So, I hope this is acceptable.


End file.
